peanut butter-chocolate skillet cookie

Why stop at a simple peanut butter cookie or a chocolate chip cookie when you can combine the two into one giant skillet cookie? This one is soft and chewy, loaded with chunks of semisweet chocolate and sweet peanut butter chips, and stuffed with a layer of smooth, creamy peanut butter. Serve it warm with a mountain of ice cream and dig into one seriously decadent dessert.

Can you believe it is already almost Memorial Day weekend? I cannot. I feel like, since moving, life has been accelerating at breakneck speed and I can’t keep up anymore. Suddenly, my kids are 3 and 6 years old. There are lush leaves on the trees outside. I’m wearing shorts. It’s SHORTS weather in Minnesota. Didn’t we just have a blizzard or something? Time, slow down please.

To cope with all this change, I made a ridiculously decadent, over-the-top skillet cookie with peanut butter and chocolate. Then, I topped it with strawberry ice cream. Then, I ate it right out of the skillet. These felt like good, smart, adult-like decisions.

Tell Me All About This Peanut Butter-Chocolate Skillet Cookie Situation.

Well, AM I GLAD YOU ASKED. If you’ve never tried a skillet cookie before, you are in for a treat (pun intended, lolz).

First things first: What is a skillet cookie? A skillet cookie is one giant multi-serving cookie that is baked in an oven-safe skillet, such as a cast-iron skillet. It’s usually more “deep-dish”-style as opposed to a single-serve cookie, reminiscent of a cookie bar. But the edges are usually perfectly crisp and the center is soft and chewy, and you can cut it into wedges or squares or just dig right in with your favorite people (or not. No judgments if you keep it all to yourself).

This Peanut Butter-Chocolate Skillet Cookie is, in particular:

• Soft and chewy in the middle.
• Crisp and chewy on the edges.
• Loaded with melty chunks of semisweet chocolate and sweet peanut butter chips.
• Baked with a center layer of smooth, creamy, irresistible peanut butter.
• Absolutely DELISH served warm with scoops of strawberry ice cream on top (or any ice cream, tbh).

I’m not drooling, you’re drooling. (OK fine, I’m drooling.)

The Best Ingredients for a Peanut Butter-Chocolate Skillet Cookie

I feel like dessert recipes often fall into one of two camps: ones that taste best with high-quality ingredients, and ones that taste good no matter what. This recipe, like the rebel it is, falls into both camps. I’d recommend getting the following ingredients in the best quality you can find/afford:

• Semisweet chocolate. Since this is a star player of this recipe, if you can find Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate bars or Scharffen Berger semisweet chocolate bars, I would splurge for those in this recipe.
• Peanut butter chips. Get the Reese’s ones. You’ll thank me later.
• Butter. Honestly, you can never go wrong with really good butter, such as Land O’ Lakes or Kerrygold. It’s just, like, science?
• Ice cream. This isn’t an integral ingredient for this recipe, but if you’re going to top your skillet cookie with ice cream, make it the GOOD stuff, pretty please.

As for the remaining ingredients, feel free to use whatever you have on hand/any store brand. In fact, that rule goes for every ingredient in this day and age, but my point is that if you can be picky with certain ingredients, the results will be all the more rewarding.

How to Bake the Best Skillet Cookie

What I love about skillet cookies is that you literally whip up a cookie dough, press it into a skillet, bake it, and in about a half-hour, you have one giant cookie ready to eat immediately — no need for chilling, scooping, portioning, cooling, etc.

But what I love about THIS skillet cookie is that you can literally whip up this cookie dough, press half of it into a skillet, top it with a layer of creamy peanut butter, top that with the remaining cookie dough, bake it, and in about a half-hour, you have one giant peanut butter-chocolate skillet cookie ready to eat immediately — after topping it with ice cream, of course.

Let’s break it down step by step:

• Step 1: Heat your oven. Grease an 8-inch cast-iron skillet (or any oven-safe skillet) with butter.
• Step 2: In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar until everything is smooth, light and fluffy. Beat in an egg and some vanilla.
• Step 3: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add that to the butter mixture, and stir together until just combined into a dough.
• Step 4: Stir in peanut butter chips and chocolate chunks.
• Step 5: Spread half of the cookie dough into your buttered skillet. Spread some creamy peanut butter on top of the dough, then carefully spoon and spread the remaining cookie dough on top, covering the peanut butter as much as you can.
• Step 6: Bake the cookie in the oven until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Step 7: Cool for just a few minutes (so you don’t, like, burn your mouth), then slice into wedges or squares if desired, top with ice cream, and devour.

A Few Extra Baking Tips

Because I like you so much, I’ll share a few extra pro baking tips to make this peanut butter-chocolate skillet cookie the best skillet cookie you’ve ever had!

1. To make the top of your cookie Instagram-worthy, top the dough with a few extra peanut butter chips and big chunks of chocolate just before baking.
2. If you don’t have a chocolate bar on hand, feel free to use chocolate chips instead! You can also skip the chocolate entirely and add extra peanut butter chips.
3. For some extra peanut-y crunch, use chunky peanut butter for the center layer and toss a few handfuls of chopped roasted peanuts into the cookie dough. You can also top your baked cookie with chopped peanuts, if desired.
4. If you don’t have an 8-inch cast-iron skillet or oven-safe skillet, you can bake the dough into cookie bars in an 8-inch square pan or 9-inch round cake pan instead.
5. Store any leftover skillet cookie in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Now you are fully prepared to enter the world of skillet cookies! Go forth and bake, my friends. And may this upcoming long holiday weekend be enjoyable, relaxing and delicious (and, most importantly, slowwwww).

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Hungry for More Peanut Butter Recipes?

• Toasted Marshmallow Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart
• Four-Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Apple Peanut Butter Granola Bars